Twist of Fate
EVENT: Play this card to force your opponent to discard all Edge cards from
his hand.
Well, another straightforward card. Play it, and your opponent loses all Edge
cards.
Like any forced discard effect, your opponent must discard at the beginning of
his next phase, which is his defense phase. Twist of Fate is a "must do"
effect so your opponent has to discard before any "may do" beginning-of-turn
effects. However, your opponent can resolve other "must do" effects first . .
. or choose to do them after he discards due to Twist of Fate.
Since Selective Memory specifically prevents the discarding of cards, you may
play it (even though it is an Edge card itself) to avoid discarding your other
Edge cards. You may choose to discard some or all of your Edge cards when
using Selective Memory in this manner. If you want to keep those Alertness
cards, but want to get rid of Weapon Binds, now would be a good time to do so.
Nefertiri is immune to Twist of Fate, as she is to most discard effects.
So that's what Twist of Fate does. But what is it good for?
The best way for anyone to determine if they should use Twist of Fate is to
determine which Edge cards are messing up their strategies. Let's go down the
list of Edge cards and see what shows up.
Alertness cards: the two that let you block/dodge certain attacks can mess up
your Seduce/Amanda strategies. Do you use Seduce? If so, add Twist of Fate.
Alertness/Hidden: this card, plus Feint, lets Power Blow specialists like
Slan and Kurgan strike with relative impunity. If you have trouble with
Personas like this, use Twist of Fate.
Careful Planning: Ever had trouble with Angry Mob/SE? Here's your solution.
Since some decks use a fourth Careful Planning via pre-game Darius, that just
means one more card you can make them lose.
Courage: Okay, you probably don't see this very often. But if someone's
built a deck around these cards (Kastagir and Duncan, perhaps?), stripping
them of it will cripple them.
Excessive Force: Another _really_ annoying card. If you deprive them of
Excessive Force cards, this might discourage them from playing those Police
cards until they can draw another EF or two.
Feint: See Alertness/Hidden above. Also good against those Connor decks that
use Ped/Hidden-Only + Mountain Cave to force you to make Hidden attacks which
they then use Feint against.
Focus: Do you want opponents ignoring your Carls and Safe Havens and Master's
Advances and The Gatherings? Of course not - use Twist of Fate to put a stop
to that.
Iron Will + Practice Practice: If your opponent is using any kind of disarm
strategy, removal of these two cards will slow her down considerably.
Lean & Mean + Patience: Both of these have about the same effect - rapid card
cycling for your opponent. Slow them down a bit. An opponent can also re-
draw using Patience after you've hit them with a heavy discard loss (Inquest,
Charm).
Reconnaissance: If you don't want them ignoring your Locations, use this. If
your opponent is using Locations and ignoring them himself using
Reconnaissance (Factory, Light House), this is a good way to hoist them on
their own petard.
Schemer: Removal of this can slow down a plot-using deck. Popular in many
Xavier decks, for obvious reasons.
Selective Memory: You're probably just giving them an excuse to use this card
by playing Twist of Fate.
Weapon Bind: This card is going to become more and more useful as time goes
on, as Card of the Week #16 next week will explore. Non-combat decks also
tend to use this card to stall their opponent. They won't after you remove it
via Twist of Fate.
Watcher's Chronicle Edge Cards: We can't go into much detail at this time,
but they are almost all extremely formidable cards. Lunge and Flashing Blade
are _really_ ugly cards in the hands of a determined opponent.
Looking over this list, it becomes clear that the loss of certain Edge cards
can make a huge difference. So who should use it?
Amanda, for sure. Wait a few turns, let them get a few Alertness cards in
their hand, then play Twist of Fate and use Seduce next turn. Watch them run
for Holy Ground. Also, Lunge can cripple an Amanda deck - use ToF to get rid
of it.
Anyone else using Seduce via Darius: Well, maybe. By the time you add four
Seduce/Amanda cards, and at least four Darius cards, _and_ Twist of Fate,
_and_ some Carls, you're looking at a pretty large deck. Richie might be able
to pull this off, but it could be a bit unwieldy for any other Persona.
Nefertiri: The mistress of discarding strikes again. Are they using Patience
to draw back as soon as you make them lose cards, or while in the Factory?
They won't after you hit them with a Twist of Fate or two
Kastagir: The same as Nefertiri, concerning his use of Charm and Kiss Your
Butts Goodbye.
Fitzcairn: The same as Kastagir, concerning his use of Charm.
Other Personas: None seem to be really hurt by the use of an opponent's Edge
cards. Patience can let an opponent bypass the effects of Cat &
Mouse/Defense: if you have a deck that uses that card, Twist of Fate is a
good idea.
However, Twist of Fate also acts preemptively to stop their strategies. You
don't _know_ that they've built a strategy around a particular Edge card. But
do you really want to find out the hard way whether that Slan deck has an
Alertness/Hidden and a Feint in his hand? Or do you want to play Twist of
Fate and take that Hidden attack, free in the knowledge that there's not a
thing they can do about it except dodge or try to block?
Generally, it seems like Twist of Fate is a good card to have a couple of in
almost any deck. For its value against Focus and Patience alone, it's worth a
decent rating. It is certainly recommended for Amanda, Nefertiri, Fitzcairn,
Kastagir, and Cat & Mouse users if they are using the strategies listed above.
So overall, Steve gives Twist of Fate a _6_. With the current Focus-heavy
environment, this card is never going to be a total waste. It's a toss-up
whether you want to allocate space in your deck for it. However, there's
enough Edge-based strategies out there (with more on the way in Watcher's
Chronicles) that it seems a pretty good gamble.
What Our Other Raters Say:
Ben - The only reliable "counter" to Edge cards.
Jeff - Useful if you play Sedarius or lock decks. Limited aside from that.
Rick - This card can help against really trim decks that use Lean & Mean or
Patience for card cycling. Any really trim deck would probably rip a TCG to
stop this one.
Hank - Forcing an opponent to discard all Edges can occasionally be useful,
but discarding Dodges or all Specials is usually more effective.
Alan - This isn't a card I have ever put into one of my decks, but there are
indeed times when I have regretted it. I still don't use it, but it _has_
come under consideration from time to time, particularly with the number of
Focii that are out there (usually "six in every deck" :-) )
Jim - Twist of Fate is a good card to play in conjunction with a "Search and
Destroy" deck that makes use of superior knowledge of your opponent's deck and
hand. It is good to follow up your use of Upper Hand or Gypsy with Twist of
Fate on the next turn if you catch your opponent with an Edge-heavy hand,
especially if they have more than one Focus in hand and you're using a
Situation-based strategy. As the number and variety of Edge cards increases,
Twist of Fate will become much more useful.
Chip - This is one of those cards that you look over the first time. If you
are tired of Angry Mob plus Careful Planning then this one can help. Any time
you don't have a better Special to play this one can help buy you the time you
need as well as cycle some cards. I think you will start seeing more of this
card start turning up.
Ratings Overall:
Steve 6
Ben 9
Jeff 3
Rick 6
Hank 4
Alan 6
Jim 6
Chip 6
Average: 5.75
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